University of Pennsylvania (Penn Museum)

The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology will reinstall its permanent Africa Galleries to enhance public engagement with its African collections. Redesigned with public instead of academic audiences as the focus, the galleries will double the permanent gallery space, maximizing the use of the collections as a public teaching tool to promote a greater understanding of the diversity, history and cultures of Africa. The galleries' design is based on community outreach initiatives and front-end testing that identified how to present the community with an accessible and engaging learning experience. Once the new galleries are installed, the core project team will conduct a summative evaluation to measure success in achieving knowledge and attitudinal changes in visitors. The evaluation findings will inform potential improvements to the galleries and provide guidance to the museum as it works to reinstall additional permanent galleries.